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“No. I’m usually too busy to stray too far from Cricket,” she answered. “I have a lot of obligations here.”
“It’s a great little town, in its own way. Cricket’s gotten trendy in the years we’ve been away, whereas Sweet Whiskey has stayed the same.”
“Meaning there’s not much there?” she asked, as the wind tossed her chestnut hair around her face.
“Not exactly. There’s a lot there; it’s just more… country.”
“He means more cowboy country,” Luke chimed in from the backseat. “People who might like our music.”
“I think most of them attended Dusty’s funeral. Kind of a wild and crazy group of mostly cowboys. I don’t know if I’m ready for that kind of crazy,” she admitted. “It makes me nervous being around all that wild testosterone. I’m used to calm and traditional kind of responses, maybe even a boring response, especially when it comes to a funeral.”
“So, are you saying you’ve gotten more traditional over the years? More refined and proper? Because if you think that’s who you are, maybe you need to watch that video of yourself again,” I argued. “Nothing calm or boring about you when you’re singing. You owned that audience.”
Connie had been crazy wild on that video, getting everyone around her to join in on the songs, dancing to the music, bumping hips with the guitar player and anyone else who offered to dance with her. A true performer. She held those people in the palm of her hand.
We all suffered from who we thought we were in public to who everyone else thought we were on stage, but Connie seemed to have this perception completely skewed in an unrealistic direction.
“I’ve never, ever thought of you as anything other than a girl, or rather a woman, who knows her own mind. Nothing boring about that. And just so you know, there’s a lot of cowgirls in Sweet Whiskey as well, and I’m sure they’d love to welcome you into the fold,” Josh said, chiming in with his logic.
Josh never argued his point unless he had all the facts, and the more Connie put up barriers, the more I appreciated Josh’s ability to tear them down… with logic, of course.
“It’s not that I’m scared, exactly. I’ve met plenty of cowboys at Dusty’s funeral and inside Last Call, our local tavern. Nice, polite guys. It’s… well… I don’t know what it is. I’m not always comfortable when I stray too far out of Cricket. I’m not good at venturing out on my own, so I’d rather stay close to home.”
“Sounds like Cricket’s your comfort zone,” Josh said.
He was on a roll, and I didn’t want to do or say anything to get in his way… as long as it was working, and so far, I had a feeling he was spot on.
“I guess it is, yes,” she mumbled, almost as if she didn’t want to admit it. She was quiet for a moment, then she said, “But there’s nothing wrong with operating out of a comfort zone. I take risks… I merely take them from the security of my familiar surroundings.”
I took a turn off the main road, that headed for the ranch. I’d sent a text to my dad, after Luke told us about all that Connie had inherited from Dusty. My dad gave me the address, and I’d already plugged it into my phone, so I knew exactly where it was located. “I thought we’d visit Dusty’s ranch first. Give it a quick drive by. Don’t you think you should at least see it before you let it go? You might like it there. If it’s anything like I remember from when I was a kid, it was an amazing place. Then, afterwards, I thought we’d stop off at the new dance hall. That way, no matter what you decide, at least you can make an informed decision.”
She hesitated for another minute or two, staring out of her side window, no doubt thinking about how she could get rid of all of us and return to her calm, orderly life.
And just when I thought she would tell us to go to hell, she said, “Sure, that might be nice. But let me make one thing crystal clear. I’m willing to do a drive by the ranch, but it’s a waste of time. It should stay in Dusty’s family. Why he thought I’d want it, I’ll never know. I would never live on a ranch… alone. I’m not a rugged cowgirl who sleeps with a shotgun next to her bed for protection while she’s out in the middle of nowhere all by herself. Never going to happen.”
She finally admitted one of her fears. I had the perfect solution to that problem… if she’d allow it. That had yet to be determined, but with her admission, it seeded my thoughts with some wickedly hot solutions that might solve all our problems.
“While that vision of you sleeping in a monster bed, alone, on a sprawling ranch might be your idea of what living on a ranch would look like, how about you change it up a little?”
“How? Make the bed smaller?”
I chuckled. “Not exactly. How ‘bout you keep the bed, but add a few housemates? Like maybe three housemates who were once close friends of yours?”
I caught the smile when she glanced over at me. “Seriously? You want me to consider taking the ranch and moving you three in with me? What are you smoking? That is not an option.”
“Why not?”
“You know perfectly well why not, and there are so many levels to that why not that we don’t have time for me to get into it now.”
“We’re all different people now, Connie. You are, too, but if you don’t mind my saying this… why not try something new? Why not try for that singing career you once wanted, and try it with us? Or do we scare you? I mean, yes, we’re all grown up now, especially us. You’re still petite, but we turned into animals… well, maybe not Luke. But Josh and I are big guys. Especially me. I’m six-five, and shall we say, I’m um… not your average guy.”
This wasn’t the time to tell her about another part of my anatomy that was bigger and thicker than normal. If I did, that probably would put the nail in the coffin for us having any kind of future together. She was such a tiny little thing, I certainly didn’t want to scare her off before we gave this thing, whatever this thing would end up being, a decent chance.
She grinned and gazed over at me for a moment, as if she got what I was trying to tell her. “You don’t scare me, Rascal Scatts. I might be small in stature, but I make up for it in my stubbornness. I don’t back down, and I don’t give up. I hate to admit it, but even though I should hate you guys, I don’t. You were part of my youth, part of my dreams, and part of who I am. What scares me is this damn car that Dusty left me. I could never drive it, but you… you look great behind the wheel.”
I quickly glanced over at her several times. I couldn’t believe those words came out of her mouth. I wanted to kiss her, but I knew the timing wasn’t right… at least not yet. I wanted to try out the rest of our plan first.
While we’d sat at that table inside Sweetie Pies for four long hours, not only did we stuff ourselves with pies and savory pockets, but we also devised a plan to nudge Connie into seeing things from Dusty’s point of view. The man left her quite a bounty for a reason, and this time, we intended to help her get what she deserved, despite her apprehensions. We wouldn’t abandon her like we had when we were younger. This time we were in for the count, and as long as there was a glimmer of hope, we would do anything and everything to make her comfortable and happy.
